


Newton's Third Law of Motion

by Ciasquare



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akira's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Parents, Established Relationship, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Not Beta Read, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:20:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24878335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciasquare/pseuds/Ciasquare
Summary: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.The physics teacher in Akira's old school, a stern, gray man named Miura, had written this on the blackboard in front of the class. Rapped the desk sharply to get their attention."Consider a shark," he'd said, pacing across the front of the classroom. "It swims by using its fins to push the water. But the shark will not be swimming if the water doesn't also push back."And Akira had snorted because surely Mr. Miura could have saved his breath and skipped this lesson altogether. Who didn't know this?
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 33
Kudos: 344
Collections: Quality Persona Fics





	Newton's Third Law of Motion

**Author's Note:**

> Rated Teen for language.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The physics teacher in Akira's old school, a stern, gray man named Miura, had written this on the blackboard in front of the class. Rapped the desk sharply to get their attention. 

"Consider a shark," he'd said, pacing across the front of the classroom. "It swims by using its fins to push the water. But the shark will not be swimming if the water doesn't also push back."

And Akira had snorted because surely Mr. Miura could have saved his breath and skipped this lesson altogether. Who didn't know this?

Everything is a series of barters and trades, everything is a pair of action and consequence. 

Mr. Miura will teach him if he is quiet, if he answers when asked, if he speaks only when spoken to, if he is a good student. If he is not a good student, Mr. Miura will make him leave the classroom. 

Watanabe-san, three tables down from him, will eat lunch with him, chat and laugh, if he shares his physics notes, if he offers to study together, if he smiles when Watanabe-san talks about his dog, if he is a good friend. If he is not a good friend, Watanabe-san would find someone else to eat lunch with.

Mother and Father give him a roof over his head, take care of him and buy him things, if he gets good grades, if he is polite and quiet with their business friends, if he does the chores around the house, if he is a good son. If he is not a good son… Well then, Akira gets sent to Tokyo, friendless and penniless, to learn a lesson.

The shark pushes against the water and the water pushes it forward. If the shark stops pushing, the water stops pushing, the shark dies. This doesn't surprise Akira in the slightest. Such is the way of the world.

That, more than anything, is what made it so easy to identify Maruki's reality for the sham that it was. Why would his friends _stay_ his friends, if the very reasons for their deals no longer exist?

So, when Akira meets Goro, he thinks he's too good to be true. 

Because Akira doesn't know a thing about what Goro wants and doesn't even try, he is contrary, blatantly and purposefully contrary, and Goro leans in, calls him _intriguing_. Because they go to cafes and jazz clubs and have conversations where Akira is nothing but honest, and Goro says he's _impressive_. Because Akira doesn't even breathe a word about his probation, and Goro tells him about his mother. 

Because Akira does absolutely nothing for Goro, except for being there, and Goro pushes. 

It's amazing. It's nerve-wracking. Akira keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop -

And in the back of Sae's car, bleeding all over the paper she'd laid on the seats, he'd thought it had and he couldn't stop laughing. He'd laughed even when Sae cast him concerned glances over her shoulder. Laughed through the nausea, when the car jerked left, then right, then on the brakes. He'd laughed, going over the memories, all the times Goro was pushing, pushing, pushing, and, God, it had to be from the very beginning, didn't it? That it was never Goro and him, force interaction pairs - it was Goro and Shido and he was just part of the action and reaction, caught in their push and pull. He'd laughed because it was so fucking funny - he's top of the class, but he keeps re-taking this fucking lesson, the same one they'd taught him back in junior high, he still fell for it: Goro, the perpetual motion machine. 

He'd laughed till he cried. He'd cried in big, gasping sobs. Sae had to pull over, "Are you okay? Why are you crying?" and he couldn't answer her because he knows, he swears to God, he knows, this is just how it is, this is just how the world is, so why do his eyes sting, why does his throat burn, why does his heart hurt?

The world rights itself.

Then Goro upends it all once again, by saving him. 

Maybe Akira's mistake was believing that Goro would ever be confined by anything so trivial as a law of motion. Goro, who awakened his persona, twice. Goro, who came back to life, twice. Goro, who-

Who is now irritably waving a hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention. Akira startles, blinking up at him and Goro scowls. "Did you hear a word of what I was saying?"

Akira wracks his brain, trying to recall the last strands of their conversation. Goro had been talking about philosophy again - he'd taken up a Philosophy minor and seemed just as enchanted as he was disgusted by it, and their dinner conversations had been overtaken recently by Goro's snide remarks about Freud and soliloquies about Marx - and Akira had gotten distracted by something Goro had mentioned… something about…

"True altruism," Akira says with confidence he doesn't feel, "the idea that someone can give without receiving anything in return."

Goro frowns at him, suspicious, but he nods. In his inquisition, he's been leaning over half of the booth table, right into Akira's personal space, but now that he's somewhat mollified by Akira's answer, he withdraws to let Akira catch a breath of relief. 

"Yes. So?"

Too soon. Akira pulls at his bangs, grimacing, which is in itself an answer. Goro rolls his eyes. "Unbelievable. You weren't listening after all." 

"Sorry. "

"What were you even thinking about?" Goro looks at Akira from under his eyebrows with a sour expression.

"You," he says plainly, drinking in the way Goro's face goes slack in pleased surprise. He covers it up quickly with a scoff, crossing his arms.

"What about true altruism could possibly make you think of me?"

Akira lets his grin turn sly. "Everything makes me think about you." 

Goro looks away, sighing deep and long-suffering at his response, but Akira doesn't miss the light flush dusting his cheeks. He flashes him a winning smile, leans over to tug at his sleeve. "Alright, I'm sorry. Really. What was it?"

Goro shoots him a glare but lets Akira cover the back of Goro's hand with his. "I was just asking your opinion on the existence of true altruism." Goro twists his palm up to loosely swipe his thumb over Akira's fingers as he thinks, "There are a few schools of thought on this. Thibaut and Kelley were one of the first to theorise that people employ a cost-benefit analysis to determine the risks and rewards of their social exchange, but just about 10 years ago now, Batson argued against it. He identified such a thing as empathy-induced altruism, which he concluded could be genuinely selfless."

He blinks a few times, before fixing his gaze on Akira, a corner of his mouth tilting up in a self-deprecating smirk, "I think you can guess whose view I agree with."

Unbidden, Akira pictures his parents. Thinks of the three of them around the dinner table at home, stiff and uncomfortable in dress clothes. Their modern art light fixture spirals down from the ceiling. Akira sits straight with his hands in his lap. Father puts his elbows on the table, rests his chin on folded hands. Mother has her arms crossed.

"Akira," she says, pursing her lips, "you have to think of the bigger picture. You need to make sense."

Internally, Akira scowls. Fuck that. 

He wants to think about how when you shrink things down small enough, nothing makes sense. Schrodinger's cat is both dead and alive. Newton's Third Law of Motion doesn't apply.

He wants to think about how he has dinner with Goro every day, over a booth table with the dingy swinging lamp that lets out barely enough light. How Goro's loose-limbed in flannel pyjamas from a neat stack that steadily growing, tucked away on stock shelves, out of sight behind Akira's sloppy heap of clean laundry. How Goro hasn't bothered to blow-dry his hair tonight and the ends are curling outwards in little ducktails, instead of framing his face. How there's a new acne spot on the bottom left of Goro's jaw, an old one on the bridge of his nose, and he's covered them with those little translucent round stickers, which always fall out while he sleeps for Akira to find them in his hair the next morning.

And Akira knows that Goro's still struggling to put a name to them, too afraid that there'll be something to lose if you can call it a name, give it a shape, but Akira doesn't mind to be whatever they are: boyfriends-not-boyfriends / partners-not-partners / friends-not-friends; as long as they _are_ , there's nothing else that needs to be understood.

Goro's beginning to look annoyed again, so Akira squeezes his hand. "I'm with Batman on this one."

Goro gives him a _look_. "Batson." But it fades away to a thoughtful expression as Goro colours between the lines of all the words that Akira doesn't say.

"Him," Akira agrees readily. "Cost and benefit are for LeBlanc's account book, and even then you can argue Sojiro's being truly altruistic." 

Goro snorts, meeting Akira's eyes with that tiny smile on his lips that makes Akira's heart dance. 

"You know what?" Goro says, shifting his hand to lace their fingers together. "I might just have to agree with you."

**Author's Note:**

> Now with [art](https://twitter.com/JustTuggi/status/1313799332467015692?s=20) by the fantastic [Tuggi](https://twitter.com/JustTuggi)!!!!!!
> 
> This is written from Akira's perspective, who thinks true altruism exists because of Goro, but I also wanted to convey by the end that Goro thinks true altruism exists because of Akira. The logic there is a bit more straightforward I think: Akira has every reason to hate Goro / to accept Maruki's reality, but he doesn't.
> 
> What they gloss over though is each other's motivations, which are not truly altruistic. Goro seeks Akira out because he sees in Akira a kindred spirit. Akira does the "right" thing, despite the many reasons not to, partly because he lives his life for others as he has been taught to do. Does any of this lessen the value or importance of their actions to the other? I'd argue not.
> 
> Also, and in no particular order:
> 
>   * The shuake feels have been taking over my life. I took time off work to write this. Someone please gift me a murder.
>   * I now have the headcanon of Goro being a philosophy nerd and Akira being a physics nerd.
>   * I had a hard time writing this because I am actually very silly and I don't know anything, and there were a lot of philosophy, physics and quantum mechanics Wikipedia pages open as I was writing this. I had a lot of fun though. I hope my lack of knowledge doesn't make this hard to read.
>   * I don't actually think that true altruism exists, but I don't think the world is any lesser for it and I'm quite happy. Despite what is portrayed here, selflessness is not necessarily a good thing and selfishness is not necessarily a bad thing. Please be happy and healthy y'all.
> 

> 
> Please let me know if you liked this!! You can find me on [tumblr](https://ciasquare.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/ciasquare).


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